Jamestown, Blacksburg battle again in AA boys state soccer tournament

Marty O'Brien, mobrien@dailypress.com | 247-4963

The record reads that Jamestown won the 2008 Group AA boys soccer state title by beating Grafton 3-0 in the final. Anyone associated with the Jamestown program will tell you the 2-1 win over Blacksburg in the semifinals was the real state championship game.

That's a no-brainer. Blacksburg entered the semifinal with a 22-0 record and the No. 1 national ranking among the 13 states that play soccer in the spring, while Grafton was a team the Eagles had beaten by a combined 16-5 in three 2008 meetings prior to the final.

"It's like the USA beating Russia in Olympic ice hockey," Jamestown coach Bobby O'Brien said, referring to the USA's upset-for-the-ages in the famed semifinal of the 1980 Lake Placid games. "If the hockey team hadn't followed up by winning the gold medal game (against Finland), their win over Russia wouldn't have been thought of as highly.

"It was the same for us in the final against Grafton."

The Blacksburg game remains the program's centerpiece and is again in the forefront as Friday's AA state semifinals approach. Jamestown (17-1-1) and Blacksburg (20-2) meet under circumstances Bobby O'Brien labels as "eerily similar" to the previous meeting.

Blacksburg is again the defending state champion, when the teams meet at the same time (10 a.m.) in the same place (Radford University's Cupp Stadium). Jamestown again enters off of a semifinal loss the year before, and a Bay Rivers District opponent (Tabb) is situated on the opposite side of the bracket.

With the heat index predicted to be well over 100 degrees in Radford on Friday, there's a more brutal similarity.

"That was the hottest thing I've ever been a part of," Bobby O'Brien said of the 2008 meeting. "The field is huge and we were required to take water breaks 20 minutes into each half.

"It was a matter of who could stand the heat the longest and make the fewest mistakes."

And it was a matter of heart. Bobby O'Brien remembers forward Kramer Runager lobbying to go back in the game with 20 minutes to go despite cramps.

"Five minutes later, he scored the go-ahead goal," Bobby O'Brien said. "Then he had to sit out the final 13 minutes."

Danny Franklin added a goal shortly thereafter to make it 2-0. Then Bobby's brother, Patrick O'Brien — at the time a freshman forward pressed into goalkeeping duty because of a teammate's injury — withstood a furious Blacksburg comeback attempt.

The Bruins got one goal back, but Jamestown hung on to win.

"I remember they applied constant pressure at the end," Patrick O'Brien said. "But we wanted to be state champs, so we never gave up.

"It was a great feat to win it, and we felt like we had just won the state championship game."

That might not be the case for Friday's Jamestown-Blacksburg winner. The other side of the bracket includes Tabb, which has twice played Jamestown close, and Jefferson Forest, unbeaten in 22 games.

But there is lots of talent on the field. Region I Player of the Year Patrick O'Brien (25 goals, 13 assists), Dan Geyer (10 goals, 10 assists) and Hunter Hartnett (15 goals, five assists) are thriving in a Jamestown attack that is getting better by the game.

The Eagles will have to contend with a Blacksburg attack led by high-scoring Geinda Smith (18 goals, eight assists) and Garland Smith (17 goals, four assists). Among the Jamestown defenders who will attempt to limit their opportunities are Phil Geyer, Drew Freidrichs and Trevor Davis, a veteran of the 2008 meeting.

"I remember Blacksburg had two really good forwards then and they have two really good ones now," Davis said. "The key was not letting their forwards touch the ball.

"We'll have to do that again."

Patrick O'Brien thinks this year's Jamestown team is as good as the one that beat Blacksburg in the '08 semifinals. Older brother Bobby, the Eagles coach, says they'll need to be.

"Blacksburg is the same quality team every year," Bobby said. "Their players start working with the program around eighth grade to come in and be role players as freshmen and sophomores.

"So they're never rebuilding and always have the right balance of youth and leadership. We're going to have to be very organized and finish what chances we get.

"If we squander three or four chances in front of goal, it will be tough to win."